"The Statutory Regulation of Chiropractors can no longer be justified, even if it does help prevent them making bogus claims….It was a big mistake to give official state recognition and regulation to a discredited, superstitious and pseudoscientific form of medical treatment in the first place. Chiropractic theory has been shown to be nothing but mystical whimsy and the effectiveness of their special back rubs has now only been shown to be marginal for lower back pain – about as good as a few paracetamol. So, when the demands of an evidence-based regulator are brought down on a cult-like pseudomedical trade, only tears could follow. What is ironic here is that when regulation was first proposed for chiropractic, one of the conditions was that the trade should be unified and have a single voice, as is characteristic of a profession. That unified voice never really appeared and the desired agreements were a political fudge in order to gain the prize of state recognition…It is not a mature profession as it cannot even agree on what the essential nature of their profession is…were they to be de-regulated, at least they would lose their imprimatur of state recognition and probably the degree level courses underwritten by the universities.” Le Canard Noir, The Quackometer (1st November 2010)